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Charlie Phillips Recognized For Years Of Pro Bono Work

BRLS Attorney Wins Top Pro Bono Award from American Bar Association

ROANOKE, VA (August 15, 2023).  Charles B. (Charlie) Phillips of Salem, Virginia, has received a 2023 Pro Bono Publico Award from the American Bar Association (ABA), the top honor given by the ABA in national recognition of pro bono volunteerism. He was recently presented the award at the 2023 ABA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, August 4, 2023. A video produced by the ABA for the presentation, featuring local judges and several of Mr. Phillips’ pro bono clients, can be viewed on the ABA Center for Pro Bono channel on YouTube, see https://youtu.be/w39GUq3h0ck.

Phillips was nominated for the award by John Whitfield, executive director of Blue Ridge Legal Services (BRLS), the legal aid society where Phillips donates his time helping legal aid clients. 

Since retiring from his law practice in 2018 at the age of 80, Phillips immediately began volunteering around 30 hours a week in the Roanoke office of BRLS. Since then, he has closed more than 1,500 cases, including over 200 in litigation. His efforts have resulted in recovering more than $450,000 in benefits for his clients, according to the nomination by Whitfield.

Phillips is a former Commonwealth’s Attorney for the City of Salem and maintained a private practice for 50 years.  He was born in Tazewell County, Virginia, attended Emory & Henry College on a football scholarship and attended the University of Richmond School of Law, graduating in 1963.

In addition to this national recognition, Phillips received the 2021 Lewis F. Powell Jr. Pro Bono Award from the Virginia State Bar. He was also the 2022 recipient of the Carl and Ruth Looney Humanitarian Award from Emory & Henry.

In the words of Robert Williams, an attorney with BRLS, “Charlie Phillips is the best of us.” Perhaps the most ringing endorsement for Phillips’s work, however, comes from a client who wrote, “Charlie Phillips saved my life. Were it not for his brilliant, tireless efforts, I would have become homeless and in all likelihood, died as a result. I will be grateful to him…forever. He is a noble gentleman.”

Blue Ridge Legal Services, Inc. is a non-profit charitable civil legal aid society providing free legal assistance in civil matters of critical importance to low-income residents of the Shenandoah and Roanoke valleys.

Attorney Highlight: Elizabeth Coltrane

Blue Ridge Legal Services Attorney
BRLS Attorney Elizabeth Coltrane

Elizabeth “Lizzy” Coltrane is a BRLS housing law attorney and Virginia native who has helped nearly 700 clients in her four years with BRLS. See what some of her clients said about her and learn a little more about her below in this month’s “attorney interview!”

“Mrs. Coltrane was the BEST! We saw her go well beyond what was expected and were very happy with the outcome. Thank you!”

“[Working with] Elizabeth Coltrane was the best experience you could ever have. She took my case and kept me informed daily and I never had one worry. She took care of it- she is the best!”

Question and Answer:

Why do you work in legal aid?

I work in legal aid because I believe that the legal system should protect all people, not just those who can afford an attorney.

What’s the most rewarding part about your job, and what’s the hardest?

The most rewarding parts of my job are helping people who have been treated unfairly, being a voice to the Court on matters it had not previously considered and assisting people who have historically had a lack of support in their lives.

The hardest part of my job is navigating the laws that often benefit landlords instead of tenants.

Is there a case that stands out in your mind as something that was particularly rewarding?

There was a Circuit Court case that was particularly rewarding because the tenant’s situation was very typical. Low-income tenants often get into unbalanced rental agreements where the landlords hold most of the power. The leases are often written in favor of the landlords and don’t provide much security to the tenants. Landlords can use their leases and their knowledge of the eviction process to scare tenants into not fighting for themselves. Tenants deserve and need our help because we can help balance everything out to make sure the tenants’ rights are being respected and protected. 

In this case, the client had redeemed (paid all rent owed) but the landlord just felt like evicting her anyway and moved forward with the eviction despite the law stating he was no longer able to do that.  We were able to get through the appeal process and have the eviction dismissed.

What do you wish people knew about legal aid?

I wish people knew that we are actually “real” attorneys.  We do not charge our clients to represent them, but we do get paid. We try just as hard (if not harder) than an attorney in a more traditional firm.

What’s an interesting fact most people don’t know about you?

An interesting fact that most people don’t know about me is that I have run at least 7 half marathons.

Anything else we should know?

It’s cool to be kind.

The Valley’s Tradition of Pro Bono Service

Note: This article was published in the October 2018 edition of the Virginia State Bar’s Virginia Lawyer, see http://www.vsb.org/site/publications/valawyer/october-2018.)

There was no legal aid program in the Shenandoah Valley in 1969 when my late mother, penniless and distraught, walked the streets of downtown Staunton searching for an attorney who would represent her even though she had no means to pay. I was 14 years old at the time, but my recollection is that Mary Baldwin College had just started a pro bono referral program in our town as a community service, and my mother was one of the first to seek assistance through it. Her great fortune was that a promising young lawyer in Staunton, Rudolph “Duke” Bumgardner III (later, a general district, circuit, and Virginia Court of Appeals judge), had signed up for the pro bono list, and she was referred to him. Mr. Bumgardner graciously agreed to represent my mother on a pro bono basis, and he zealously did so over the next several years, ultimately obtaining a favorable outcome for her. She was eternally grateful for his representation. She would always note that not only did he do an outstanding job in representing her, but that he was also unfailingly respectful and courteous to her — “treating [her] like a queen” — even though she could not afford to pay him for his services. Judge Bumgardner’s pro bono assistance had a real impact on the lives of my mother and her children. In the process, it impressed upon me the critical importance of ensuring access to justice for the less fortunate and the crucial role pro bono service plays in accomplishing this.

This culture of professionalism and the duty to render pro bono service it engenders — embodied in Judge Bumgardner’s pro bono representation of my mother a half century ago — is still alive amongst the members of the valley’s legal community. To wit, the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Bar Association has operated a pro bono referral program with Blue Ridge Legal Services (“BRLS,” the legal aid society that serves the Shenandoah Valley, the Roanoke Valley, and the Alleghany Highlands) for over 35 years. The bar’s program presumes universal participation by its members and an expectation that each will donate a minimum of 20 hours annually to these pro bono referrals, in addition to other pro bono and community service undertaken. Thirty-five years later, this program is still going strong. It has received state and national recognition, including the American Bar Association’s prestigious Harrison Tweed Award in 1995 and the Virginia State Bar’s Lewis F Powell Jr. Pro Bono Award in 1998.

Similar pro bono programs have long been supported by the various bar associations across the Shenandoah Valley, dating back to the early 1980s. At the southern end of BRLS’ service area, the legal community in the Roanoke Valley has similarly displayed a strong commitment to pro bono service for decades. The Virginia Bar Association won the ABA’s Harrison Tweed Award in 1995 for its pro bono hotlines, including its pro bono hotline in Roanoke. In addition to supporting the pro bono hotline, the Roanoke Valley’s legal community has supported a robust pro bono referral program operated by legal aid since the 1980s. In 2017, at the request of Chief Justice Lemons, the judiciary and bar leaders in the 25th Judicial Circuit collaborated with BRLS in a pro bono recruitment initiative among the four bar associations in the circuit, ranging from Staunton to Fincastle. The initiative resulted in an impressive 86 percent of the actively practicing private attorneys in the Circuit agreeing to participate in BRLS’ pro bono referral programs.

In 2013, the Virginia State Bar’s Access to Legal Services Committee undertook the first study ever to measure the amount of pro bono service being rendered across the commonwealth. Using the data available (there being no system in place at that time for comprehensive pro bono reporting), the study found that the Valley’s attorneys were performing pro bono service at twice the rate of the Commonwealth as a whole. The Valley led every other region of the state both in the percentage of lawyers participating in pro bono programs and in the number of pro bono cases handled per capita.

I proudly commend the lawyers in the Valley of Virginia for your quiet, longstanding tradition of pro bono service. If there are attorneys in our service area who are not yet being provided meaningful pro bono opportunities, please contact me, and we will work together to find the best way to use your skills to provide access to justice for folks in the valley who really need legal representation — just as my mother did, fifty years ago.

John E. Whitfield is the executive director of Blue Ridge Legal Services.

The Virginia Self-Represented Litigant Study

In December 2017 the National Center for State Courts released the Virginia Self-Represented Litigant Study: Outcomes of Civil Cases in General District Court, Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court, and Circuit Court. This was final report in a series of reports analyzing court data from the Virginia judicial system’s case management databases. The study was funded by a Technology Initiative Grant (TIG) from the Legal Services Corporation to Blue Ridge Legal Services, who contracted with the National Center for State Courts to undertake this study. This report, along with its companion reports, can be accessed here.

The Sobering Findings of the Virginia Self-Represented Litigants Study, Virginia Lawyer, June 2018 edition

Summary Report on the Findings of the Virginia Self-Represented Litigant Study rev

VIRGINIA SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANT STUDY: Outcomes of Civil Cases in General District Court, Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court, and Circuit Court

VIRGINIA SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANT STUDY: Summary of SRL-Related Management Reports for General District Court, Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court, and Circuit Court

VIRGINIA SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANT STUDY: Descriptive Analysis of Civil Data in General District Court

VIRGINIA SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANT STUDY Descriptive Analysis of Civil Data in Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court

VIRGINIA SELF-REPRESENTED LITIGANT STUDY Descriptive Analysis of Civil Data in Circuit Court